anniversary in miami

In mid-June, John and I went to Miami to celebrate 5 years of wedded bliss :) It was lovely. Caitlin had a blast at home with Nana.
This was the view out of our lovely hotel room.
The board walk stretches forever along the beach. We had great weather with about an hours-worth of T-storms each day.

We read books, napped, shopped...
played in the pool...
played in the ocean
and enjoyed the sunshine

My serenade

Tonight I put Caitlin to bed and she asked me to sing her "you are my sunshine."  This is a common choice of a bedtime song for her, so I sang to her.  After I stopped (I only know the first verse), she looked into my eyes for about a full minute while singing, totally unprompted:

-You are my mommy, my only mommy,

-She  make me happy when skies are gray,

-You never know dear, how much I love you,

-Please don't take my (long pause)..mommy away.

I just love this special kid to pieces and had to share.  I just locked eyes with her the whole time thinking what an amazing moment this is.  Maybe it's less meaningful than I think and I'm overexaggerating, but it may be one of the most memorable, sweet moments of mothering for me.  What a true blessing this child is.  Thank you, Lord.

Preschool Musical

Getting ready to leave for the "Spring Sing"
Caitlin's in the front, her teacher, Ms. Liz, is in the pink, leaning over for me to snap a picture. Caitlin is holding a little flashlight that was her prop for the song "This Little Light of Mine," which was the second (and last) song they sang. The first song was "If You're Happy and You Know It." Caitlin did great and sang both songs. She did fall apart a bit at the end when another boy from her class tried to take her flashlight--unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of that encounter. I didn't have a great vantage point, but these are the best I could do:
If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands:

If you're happy and you know it, stomp your feet

Shiner

We think the swelling/redness on her right eye is the result of a bug bite of some kind--but who knows. she keeps telling us it's a mosquito bite, but how would she know?

My birthday present

for my birthday a few weeks ago we went on a walk through a nature trail at a local park---later that day we went to a new waterpark near our house--no pictures from that though since we didn't want to risk bringing the camera. It was a wonderful birthday though--just a nice, simple family day.

Sleepyhead

This is why I'm late to work lately......she is worse than a teenager (but maybe not as bad as me when I was a teenager) when trying to get out of bed in the morning.

Hide and Seek

Caitlin's new favorite thing is Hide and Seek--she was getting really good at it too--at least that's what I thought until I heard "I'm hiding mom, don't find me...." and found this and "I'm in the box"

clown.

TEA SET for Easter...

...OK, it's a month after we received this Easter gift, but better late than never to share, right?

This one's for Grandma Joanie and Grandpa Buddy--this is the tea set I was searching all over cyberland for and found ONE! It is beautiful--you can't tell, but it's wooden (so are the little sandwich pieces that you see on the table as well)--Caitlin was serving lunch to Gabby and me! Thank you for the tea set!




Gabby had to have a spoonful as well :)

TeeBall!!!!!!!!!!

More catching up!

Daddy was home for a snow day earlier this month:
Playing "Duck-Duck-Goose" with her friends:


New swimsuit she got for her birthday that she just had to wear:
modeling a new sweatshirt:
just looking beautiful:
taking care of some stinky diapers her animals made:

Baby Bumblebee Song

This was from 2-18-08, Caitlin's been singing the Baby Bumblebee song non-stop. 

Happy Birthday, Big Girl

Caitlin is two today. My oh my, where did the time go? She is definatley enjoying the attention of a birthday this time. This morning when we walked downstairs together, she saw cupcakes on our kitchen island (in aa tupperware, i might add) and squealed My birthday cake!!!! We took these in to daycare today to celebrate. She is always making us laugh. If you ask how old she is, she will say, without fail two years old--not just two, but two years old and she gets very serious to say so. Lately she's been loving to diaper all her stuffed animals...she's started pretending a lot too recently, which is fun--if she asks for milk and it's not quite time for milk, we can pour her pretend milk in a pretend cup and she is thrilled. it's great. Thanks to Auntie Rebecca for making the lovely birthday cake we had to post above. Thanks to everyone who helped us through these two years--we have lots of loving friends and family who we couldn't do without and we are so grateful. Happy Birthday, Caitlin!!!